A Vermont woman who was injured during a lye attack underwent a face transplant procedure at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.
Carmen Blandin Tarleton's estranged husband attacked her with lye and beat her with a baseball bat after breaking into her home in 2007.
The lye attack left Tarleton with burns over more than 80 percent of her body. The 44-year-old nurse and mother of two children was placed in a medically induced coma for three months and underwent more than 55 surgeries to treat the burns.
"Despite our best efforts, Carmen was left severely disfigured and in constant pain. She would drool almost constantly," said Dr. Bohdan Pomahac, director of plastic surgery transplantation where Tarleton received the procedure.
Pomahac and a surgical team of over 30 members performed a 15-hour surgery where they transplanted facial skin on the neck, nose, and lips. The procedure also included repairing facial muscles, arteries and nerves from a donor.
Tarleton is expected to regain 75 to 80 percent of facial movement with a slow increase of sensation and motor functions over a six-month to one-year period, according to Pomahac.
"I feel great appreciation and gratitude for the tremendous gift I've been given," Tarleton said in a statement. "We're all excited to move into this new chapter of our lives together."
Tarleton worked as a transplant nurse before the attack in 2007 and shared heartfelt sentiment to the people that took care of her during the recovery process.
"I am so grateful for all that have been watching over me with such tenderness and loving care. I know how truly blessed I am, and will have such a nice reflection in the mirror to remind myself what selfless really is," she said in a blog post as reported by ABC News.
(SOURCE)
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